AG: Only Legislature Can Change Sebastian County District Boundaries

Only the Arkansas General Assembly has the authority to change the district boundary in Sebastian County to include Barling in the Fort Smith District, according to an Arkansas Attorney General’s Office opinion.

District 75 state Rep. Charlotte Vining Douglas, R-Alma, sought the opinion at the request of Barling City Attorney Matthew Ketcham, who asked on behalf of the city of Barling.

The city also wanted an opinion on whether current state law, which allows some cities to vote wet/dry but denies it to other cities, violates the equal protection clauses of the state and federal constitutions.

Arkansas courts have interpreted the law as meaning “local option” elections may be held in political subdivisions in wet counties, but not in political subdivisions in dry counties, according to the opinion.

Tabor said state law and Arkansas Supreme Court precedent are clear: once a county or district votes against allowing liquor sales, “no portion of the county may hold an independent local option election.”

In 1944, the entire southern district of Sebastian County voted to go dry.

Assistant attorney general J.M. Barker, who prepared the opinion issued Tuesday, said the office issued an opinion in 1988 that the law is constitutional, and nothing has changed since then to change that opinion.

After Tabor rejected attempts by Barling and the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority to intervene in the lawsuit following his order voiding the vote, the Barling Board of Directors authorized Ketcham in March 2013 to file suit in Pulaski County challenging the constitutionality of the law.

No such lawsuit appears in the Pulaski County online court docket.

At the same time, Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, filed a Senate bill during the 2013 Arkansas legislative session to give all cities power to vote for or against liquor sales. That effort stalled in the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs.

In February, the board of directors approved a resolution asking the Arkansas Municipal League to help draft and pass legislation in the 2015 state legislative session, that amends state law “to the extent it affords all cities within the state of Arkansas equal right to hold their own wet/dry local elections regardless of whether or not the city sits in a wet or dry county.”

Ketcham also proposed an alternative amendment to the AML that would allow certain cities in counties with more than one district to hold their own wet-dry elections. The cities affected would need to be located next to a wet portion of the county, as in Barling’s case.

Both Ketcham and Barling City Administrator Mike Tanner were unavailable for comment Wednesday.